Did Someone Really Give Away a $260,000 Lottery Ticket?

A California woman who won $1 million in a lottery earlier this year is claiming she also won $260,000 last week — but the ticket was stolen.

Mountain View resident Emily Leach, who won the million-dollar prize in January, bought a pile of Scratcher tickets last Friday, and says while one of them was worth $260,000, someone who was in the store “stole” the ticket.

She claims that she went into her pocket to give $100 to a man asking for money, and accidentally handed over the ticket in addition to the cash.

The man hasn’t been identified, but during an investigation, lottery officials said surveillance video from the store “shows this woman buying a lot of tickets and then giving them away.” Local residents say that wouldn’t be unusual — ever since Leach won the lottery earlier this year, she’s become known for “random acts of kindness around the community.”

“I paid off all my medical bills, helped my family and helped people in the community. I was supposed to be dead three years ago,” said Leach, who added she’s still in poor health.

Russ Lopez, spokesman for the California Lottery, said, “At this point we would not make a judgment as to who owns the [$260,000] ticket. The ticket has not been claimed yet. Once the ticket has been claimed then we can say a little bit more.”